Greetings, fair internet! I trust you’re having a fantastic real Thanksgiving weekend? I know we are. You know, there are a few very simple tips to make sure that your Thanksgiving weekend is memorable.

Tip one: shock and awe. Or alternatively, go big or go home. Build a death pit in your backyard, turn your living room into Thunderdome, and hide saliva-sensitive firecrackers in the food. As host, people expect a spectacle from you, much like you expect your guests to have the desire to live through to the end of the year. These measures kill two birds with one stone.

Tip two: have music playing. Live music. We humbly suggest Chumbawumba.

Tip three: avoid using the following words around the grandparents: soap dish, scrap bin, pantomime, and anal. You don’t want to bring up old, harmful memories.

Tip four: have fun!

Okay. Now that we have that out of the way, it’s time for some awards!

IT’S LIKE YOU’RE SOME KIND OF ANIMAL, MAN

By now, no one should be surprised that Jeff Lemire can write a book. All of his efforts so far have been fantastic, ranging from his Essex County trilogy, through to The Nobody and Sweet Tooth, and right up to Animal Man. Last month’s premiere issue had to be one of my favourite reads, reintroducing Buddy and his family with very little fuss or muss, while simultaneously setting up something creepy to explore.

The second issue features more of the same kind of excellent story-telling, but with the introductions out of the way, Lemire is free to dig into these characters (and the plot) in a fairly deep way. Buddy attempts to remain calm for his family in the face of one of his greatest worries: his family is in potential danger due to his powers. Even worse, it’s effecting his little girl directly, as she seems to be the focal point of this nebulous danger. For her part, his daughter remains calm, acting as Buddy’s guide through the strangeness that abounds. It leaves everyone (including the reader) feeling a little out of place. After all, kids aren’t supposed to know everything, let alone be so in tune with something so terrifying.

Ellen Baker is also portrayed quite well in this book. While she is a little out of her depth, and breaks down a little bit, she’s shown as being incredibly strong, in the face of everything. She gets mad at Buddy a couple of times in the way that couples do: upset by circumstances beyond their control, scrambling for answers, and directing their anger towards one of the only people they know they can vent to and find absolute and unconditional acceptance. She knows Buddy doesn’t have the answers to this one, knows he doesn’t deserve the ire, and knows that he will absolutely do anything he can to find the answers, to comfort her despite the fact that he’s lost too. Their interplay and their trust in each other is perfectly portrayed, and I love that Lemire clearly has a fondness and a bead on that relationship.

And while he’s more at the periffery of this story, Buddy’s boy Cliff gets a few good lines too, remarking on how bad-ass his dad looks in the midst of something terrifying. And then, of course, there was the story, which was equally enthralling as it was mysterious. Balancing the story’s forward momentum with character work and additional questions, offering a sizable chunk of story for $2.99. This is definitely one of the best of the new DC books - which is why we’re giving this book the Brady Bunch Award for Family Matters. (And why we’re telling you to go out and buy it. Now.) (B)

M&Ms AREN’T JUST A TASTY BREAKFAST ANYMORE

Moon Knight has been a slow burn right from the start. If not executed well, it could have easily been used as an example of decompression gone wrong, a prime example of what a lot of readers hate about modern comic storytelling. But Brian Michael Bendis is a master for a reason, and Issue 6 is a great exemplar of why. Lingering tension punctuated with jolts of action, all held together by this strange new world of the mentally ill Marc Spector’s dual live as a television producer and the vigilante Moon Knight as he hallucinates Avengers giving him advice.

But the part for me that really, really works, the part that has me calling this one of the best books on the shelf any week, is the tentative partnership and relationship between Marc and Maya Lopez, Echo. Maya and Marc may be two of the deadliest fighters in the world, but their line of work and Marc’s illness have left the two deeply broken individuals. Watching them tentatively approach each other – with the occasional severe beating – has been the most rewarding part of reading this book. They’re not jumping to fuck each other blind. They’re circling each other, messing up, and wondering if they’re even capable of doing it right. I love the part of the story about the Kingpin of LA assembling an Ultron and how it combines the old with something new to the characters, but the truly and viscerally exciting part is Marc and Maya.

One of Bendis’ greatest strengths is trusting his artist to sell the emotion of the scenes, and Alex Maleev is one of the best at it and taking a scene like Maya and Marc that’s full of humour and sadness and letting both come out completely in only two pages. It’s hard to do, especially with so many wordless, and if it doesn’t work it looks awful. With Maleev playing off Bendis, however, it just about made me sing, I loved it so much that I can only applaud as I give the two the Men on a Wire Award. (J)

So as we all know, the newest issue of Casanova: Avaritia came out this week. Without question it was the best comic that hit the stands this week (YOU DON’T WANT TO FIGHT US ON THIS POINT), but we like to cover that comic in other in depth ways. Thus, we once again put it into our Anthony Michael Hall of Fame and move on to another deserving choice.

Joshua Hale Fialkov has been quietly putting out amazing comics for years. His involvement in DC’s New 52 initiative (as the writer of I, Vampire), he’s become one of those “overnight sensations” that have been working hard to put out amazing product over a very very long night. Anyway, in addition to his fantastic work on I, Vampire, Fialkov has a new ongoing creator owned book hitting the shelves from Image Comics.

Last of the Greats #1 is an event series done in the span of 32 pages. It serves as an introduction to a new world, new heroes, and then chronicles the decimation of both. This is the beginning of a series. With a fantastic ending and a stellar showing by artist Brent Peeples, this is another very promising Image series - one of a huge string that have popped up lately. Turns out, if you let good creators go wild on something they are really passionate about, they’ll make great comics. Who could have known??!?!

Anyway, this is definitely a series that you need to get on top of now, while it’s new. You don’t want to get behind on it, because it seems like it’ll be a pretty wild ride. Hell, I’m not even sure where it’s going to go from here, but it’ll sure be fun. (B)

This is Comics! The Blog. We now commence our broadcast week.